Explanatory note

These Regulations prescribe a system for classifying the quality of inland waters, coastal waters and relevant territorial waters with a view to reducing the pollution of those waters by the dangerous substances listed in the Schedules to the Regulations (regulations 2 and 3 and Schedules 1 and 2). Those substances are substances within List II of Council Directive 76/464/EEC^f1 (which deals with pollution caused by certain dangerous substances discharged into the aquatic environment), and the Regulations are made in order to establish water quality objectives for those substances for the purposes of Article 7 of the Directive (pollution reduction programmes).

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency is required by the Regulations to sample waters classified under the Regulations (and analyse samples) to monitor the effect on those waters of discharges containing the dangerous substances in question, to determine the extent of any pollution by those substances and compliance with the requirements for the relevant classification (regulation 4).

Section 30C of the Control of Pollution Act 1974 provides for the establishment of water quality objectives by means of the Secretary of State serving a notice on the Scottish Environment Protection Agency. That section is modified so that—

These Regulations also amend the Surface Water (Dangerous Substances) (Classification) (Scotland) Regulations 1990^f2 (“the 1990 Regulations”) which prescribe the system of classifying the quality of inland waters, coastal waters and relevant territorial waters according to the presence in them of concentrations of certain dangerous substances. Schedule 1 (criteria for the classification of inland waters) and Schedule 2 (criteria for the classification of coastal waters and relevant territorial waters) to the 1990 Regulations are amended to reduce the concentrations specified in those Schedules for the substances aldrin, dieldrin, endrin and isodrin. These amendments reflect the quality objectives specified for those substances in Annex II to Council Directive 86/280/EEC^f3, as amended by Council Directive 88/347/EEC^f4.